Bringing a smile on kids’ faces is none other than a series called Pokemon which follows the quest of the main character, Ash Ketchum (known as Satoshi in Japan) a Pokemon master in training, as he and a small group of friends travel around the fictitious world of Pokemon along with their Pokemon partners.
The anime has been running successfully since its debut on Hungama with Pokemon: Indigo League in May 2014 with a new Hindi dub cast. Since its premiere, targeted at the age group of 4-14 years old, it has been consistently ranked on top among kids’ preference.
Hungama has always pursued to represent the spirit of kids in an unapologetic and unrelenting manner. The handpicked characters like Ninja Warrior, Doremon or now Pokemon have been a success on the channel because of the interesting narrative.
In terms of popularity, the show in its launch week garnered 489 TVTs and ranked number one in total TV among all kids (CS 4-14 ABC) in Hindi speaking market (HSM) during its prime play time slot. Moreover, since launch till date, it has ranked number one in total TV among all kids (CS 4-14 ABC) in HSM and has reached out to 96.9 million individuals (CS4+) out of which 32.9 million are kids (CS 4-14) in all India.
The channel claims that from May to November, the anime had 1.5 million kids tuning in for it, which has lead to an increase of 15 per cent in total viewership.
In January, 2014 when the channel was scouting for the right content to fill the gap in its programming, the thought that evolved was that all young kids have a fantasy world filled with a lot of imagination and this notion was perfectly resonated and reflected in Pokemon, which has managed to capture the imagination of one whole generation for over a decade, it was time to bring another generation in contact with the series, was the thought that was shared by one and all involved in the programming team of the channel.
When the network bought the television rights of Pokemon, it needed to get a couple of things right. Firstly, it looked at the complementary strengths of Pokemon and Hungama and how can one fuse them to create companion for the kids.
So, for the first time, the channel launched a weekly series (Monday – Friday) at 1:00 pm. And apart from the original runtime at 1:00 pm, the channel also gives opportunity to kids to sample the content by airing repeats during the day.
To maintain and retain the number one position, the channel does consumer research four times in a year to meet different needs. The channel is confident of maintain its numbers riding on the back of Pokemon and other such more engaging content for its kiddie audience.